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Second Advisor's Name

Third Advisor's Name

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Date of Defense

3-9-2011

Abstract

GHOST-JET is a collection of poems rooted in the lyrical tradition, often juxtaposing images of the natural world--the human body, insects, the Florida terrain--against images of surrealism--ethereal spirits, monsters, dreamscapes--in order to create metaphorical leaps of the imagination. In these poems there is the world as we know it and the world on the peripheral--zombies and babies turning into crocodiles, portraying the anxieties of the contemporary world we face as parents, children, and citizens. Written primarily in free verse, the collection also contains more traditional forms: pantoum, sestina, and haiku. There are no section breaks in this collection. Instead, the poems alternate between the personal and the political; between the particular fears of parenting and the more abstract fears in a new, post-September 11th America; between the violence perpetuated by family members and violence committed by the unknown, faceless aggressors in the world around us.